The World Cup in Qatar and the "Game on the Abyss": Does the ARD thriller series show the truth about world football?

Created: 01/11/2022, 18:38

By: Rudolf Ogiermann

“How you promise young people a lot and then drop them”: David Winter (Itay Tiran) is a successful football scout.

And he knows (too) much about the machinations of the world football association WFA.

© Stephan Rabold/Degeto

Corrupt football officials, a world association president who will stop at nothing, young talents from Africa who are hoping for a great career, and in between a woman who wants to solve the murder of her friend, a football scout - all of this can be seen in the eight-part ARD Thriller series about the dark side of world football that reads like a critical commentary on the World Cup in Qatar.

"We open people's hearts," says Jean Leco (Raymond Thiry) pathetically, but the journalist, who sits across from the head of the - fictitious - world football association WFA, is not impressed by these words.

He wants to know how many corpses Leco has walked over.

He breaks off the conversation.

"Playing on the Abyss" is the name of this ARD eight-part series about the round leather, placed a few weeks before the start of the World Cup in Qatar.

It is a fictional prelude to the sporting spectacle, a gripping thriller about the dark side of the sport that is so popular around the world, about people who lie, cheat - and murder - for success, fame and big money.

The focus of the film by director Rick Ostermann (“Das Boot – Die Serie”), based on the screenplay by Bernd Lange, Johannes Flachmeyer, Anneke Janssen and Thomas Ritter, is the Berlin lawyer Lea Brandstätter (Birgit Minichmayr), whose boyfriend David Winter (Itay Tiran ), a successful soccer scout, dies before her eyes in a mysterious car accident in the parking lot of a soccer stadium.

Obviously David had been threatened before - but why and by whom?

Hooligan Marcel Fork (Max von der Groeben) is also puzzled.

His best friend was stabbed to death by unknown assailants just meters from where David died.

Are the two events related?

Lea, supported by her boss Christina (Eva Mattes), and Marcel want to find out together who is behind the bloody deeds.

The trail leads to the top, to the pinnacle of world football.

Goes over corpses: Jean Leco (Raymond Thiry), head of the world football association WFA, who absolutely wants to push through his plans for a World League.

© Stephan Rabold/Degeto

Here the sport and its fans in parkas and with beer mugs, there the executive floor of football, the world of tailor-made suits, expensive hotels and private jets - "Playing on the Abyss" brings both milieus together.

Director Ostermann makes the story appear very realistic in his elaborately filmed production (camera: Juan Camillo Sarmiento) with its frequent changes of scene, actual events such as the World Cups in Russia and Qatar are explicitly mentioned, the stadium, which soon becomes the scene of the crime, is the real old forester in Berlin.

It is about the creation of a "World League", an annual club world championship, which WFA President Leco wants to push through by all means.

And it's about the fate of young footballers from Africa who have hopes of a great career,

Determined on her own: Lea Brandstätter (Birgit Minichmayr).

© Stephan Rabold/Degeto

When the offer came to play in the mini-series, she had to "laugh out loud," said leading actress Minichmayr in an interview with our newspaper, because in the first exposé her role was still that of a football coach and former professional soccer player: "But I have no feeling for the ball , still privately has a special interest in football.

I can't even declare offside." But her role was rewritten, "and then it worked for me.

I found it appealing to play this Lea as a kind of wounded animal who, in desperation at the death of her boyfriend, takes on all sorts of people.”

According to the 45-year-old, she only dealt with the machinations of the powerful football associations and their officials after she had been accepted for the role.

And she can say that much of what is told in the series is "not fiction", not least the world of football scouts and their search for the next genius: "How to promise a lot to young people and then drop them", that I was most interested in writers and directors.

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Does the story shake up the fans?

"It's not in my power, I want to use my acting to ensure that the audience doesn't get bored, that's my credo," says the Austrian film and theater star, who was also engaged at the Bavarian State Theater for a number of years.

Mourns for the friend: Marcel Fork (Max von der Groeben).

© Stephan Rabold/Degeto

Her verdict on the World Cup in Qatar is clear against the background of what she said: "It would be great if there was a world reaction that everyone boycotted it and didn't turn on the television.

But I'm afraid that Qatar won't get fans away from football either.” For her colleague Max von der Groeben, who gained eight kilos of muscle mass for his role as Marcel, a boycott would also be “the right thing.

If you think about the money that must have flowed in order for the World Cup to take place in a country that is not at all suitable for a football World Cup - the fan must feel fooled." On the other hand, "it's not the job of the Fans and not the footballer to change the structures.

That is the task of politics, definitely.”

Broadcast Dates:

On Thursday, November 3rd, from 8.15 p.m., parts 1 to 4 will be shown, parts 5 and 6 will be shown on Friday, November 4th, from 9.45 p.m., parts 7 and 8 will then be on Saturday, November 5th. 11th, also from 9.45 p.m.

All episodes are also available in the ARD media library.